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10/8/13

4:00pm Atlanta time. September 17, 2013. We matched with our new son.
This is the little boy that I have blogged about previously that is the
most recent situation and he is almost identical to David in every way. It's crazy.
That will have to be another post all together. He is 6. He has been in
an orphanage since the age of 3. His parental rights were terminated
long ago so we will not have a legal risk involved. But, today I wanted
to write about our news: We Matched!!! And we are celebrating that. And asking for prayer as we have a few more steps in getting this boy home!

WOW! Whoa.... and Holy Cow!!!!

And
it has taken me, us, and our kids some time to even begin to process
this amazing thing. Please give me grace in waiting to share because you
literally go from one day with nothing to the next day with a 6 year
old moving in within weeks. It is a lot to take in.

You
see, I got the call in the middle of my event planning job in Las
Vegas. Of course I did. I go out of town all of ONCE a year. And that's
when I get the phone call. Can you imagine getting that phone call, not
being with your HUSBAND, and being completely ACROSS the freaking
country?!!!

I could not even process. I screamed into
the phone with excitement at my DFACS worker. Cried. And ran down the
hall like a maniac. Its Vegas. No one gave me a second look even. And
then I thought, Oh my gosh I have to call Tim. Like, yes. Tim. He needs
to know this.

I call him. We are in shock. Freaking
out. Excited. Nervous. And realize we have no idea what to do next. Do I
fly home right then? Is he coming tomorrow? What do we do now? We had
focused so much on getting everything done. All our ducks in a row. To
have the hope of even matching one day. We had NO IDEA what even
happened after you actually matched. We flipped.

Upon
calming down, then talking in depth with DFACS, we quickly talked
through our next steps and I did not fly home as our new son wasn't
being dropped off that night.

I had to wait from
Tuesday ALL the way to Saturday to just be with Tim. And just be
together with our news. It sure was a good homecoming. It felt like I
came home to a new life. New hope. An answered prayer. Joy. The Lord. My
sweet husband, partner, and best friend. God had done this for us.

We
told our kids the next morning at breakfast. In typical 7 year old and
almost 5 year old fashion, they begin hooping and hollering and broke
into a wrestling match in the floor, like puppies.

We
celebrated Davids birthday that night with family and Daves buddies and
were able to share our news with them. We had a meeting with DEFACS the
next week and reviewed all his paperwork. We had planned a trip to
Disney World a while back that was perfect timing to go on and settle in
with our news. Our next meeting (and final meeting) will be next
Thursday. Now, we begin setting up a move in timeline, which will happen
hopefully sometime this month and ask any more questions we have. Would
you pray for the next few steps in moving this sweet boy into our home?

Matching
is a funny thing. I feel as though you waiver back in forth from being
100% excited and then 100% terrified. You have NO IDEA what the child is
like you have matched with!! AAHHH!
And with our new son, he is
6... almost 7. Like a real person. And we have no idea what he is like.
You don't meet the child until right before you begin moving him in and
WAY after you have committed to them. It doesn't matter though because
the kid you meet will not be the kid you end up bringing home. We know
he is going to change so much from being in a permanent home.

Whoa.
Blew our minds.
Adoption is crazy. And like a war zone.
And awesome.

But,
God's sovereignty plays a role, right? We ultimately believe God does
the family matching. So, do you just blindly walk into any situation?
What about your current children? What if it isnt a good match?
What
if something goes wrong? What if it doesn't? What if this was the road
your family was meant to go down? What if fear is the only thing that
kept you from it? Does it matter if you meet the child? Because the
child will not be the same child in a year after being with a permanent
family? Can you really know EVERYTHING about a child anyway? Can you
predict what this child will be like in your family? Can you predict
anything in your own life anyway? What if this child completely de-rails
your family? What if one of your own biological kids ends up doing that
anyway? What if your family becomes closer, stronger, more united,
equipped to embrace others, and happier.... even happier?
And
lastly, if part of Gods' heart is orphans in distress.... then might we
get to be apart of something much, much bigger than us? The answer to
that is Yes.

All I can tell you is that we have Great Hope. Great, great HOPE.
And all I am asking is for the people around us to share in this great hope.

We are trusting in Him who works all things together for the good of those who love Him.
We need support and prayers.
We need people who will speak life and speak hope.
We know about the fears.
We have come to a crossroads with the Lord about it.

We
believe with our whole hearts, this child is ours. Meant to be. The
Lord has just given us that. I have said it before, but we love a child
we have never met. How? We have 2 kids we loved before they were ever
born into this world. Prayed for. Wanted. Fought for. Fought very, very
hard for. We feel the same about this 6 year old precious, precious boy.
We are his people.

You don't get a lot of information when you adopt. Maybe a paragraph. Blurb. Maybe nothing.
It is blind faith.

You will always have more questions that you have answers for. That is the truth.

10/5/13

Can you believe this sweet little 2 1/2 year old boy with his baby sister is now SEVEN??

I mean, there is no WAY that my boy can be SEVEN!

Sure makes this mama feel old!

Since I am very behind, I will catch up a little in this post! We just finished our crazy month of September. Tim went out of town for a week for his work Deep Sea Fishing/Golf trip and had a blast. I went on my annual event planning job to Las Vegas for a week. And we ended the month in Disney World with my mom and dad! Whew.... lets just say we are HOME for a while!

In between all the traveling chaos, this little man had his buddies over for a Ninja Party! Would you know the day I plan for LOTS (16 children and 32 adults) to come over, it rains. Yep. Rain.

So, the only way I can remotely bring you into the chaos is to describe it as a frat party with 7 year old boys. Tim fully embraced the testosterone in the house. And maybe helped bring it up a few notches. Everyone had swords. And then he made ninja balloons to be the targets and tied them all around the house.

Whatever. Just, whatever.

PLEASE NOTE> Do you see my hallway?? It is the last darn thing I have to paint in this old house. And guess what? I didnt even BOTHER before this party! That is an old rug I threw down so no one would body bowl down the hall and that is straight DRYWALL behind David. I guess when you throw a frat party, you need to look like a frat house. Done. And done.

Well, they had fun. We survived. Nothing was broken and I'm pretty sure no one was hurt. We didn't hear them if they were. The best part of the night was the end..... downtown Marietta re-scheduled their fireworks from the 4th of July that night. So, David still thinks the town fireworks were just for his birthday. We told him no different. It was a memorable day for my sweet boy and I loved it being all about him. David suited up...

David and his new electric scooter. Yes, it goes 10mph. And yes, he is wearing a helmet, wrist guards, elbow pads, and knee pads.

Ninja cupcakes! Pintrest inspired. They look cuter far away. I did these when I was way too tired after flying in from Vegas.

Tim's awesome ninja balloons all over the house. I think there were 15 sword stations.

Happy Birthday sweetheart! We sure have had an amazing 7 years and I love the time we got together this month.... in Disney World!

Ok, for the record. This was our 3rd Annual Disney trip! If you ever want to know how to go on the cheap, email me! For real! I owe my sister a lot for her research, but this year we did something just as cheap! Years past, we have camped at Fort Wilderness. But, if it rains on your trip.... it aint pretty.

This year, we stayed in an awesome condo off VRBO in Buena Vista, Fl. It was ridiculously nice. And cheap. And 10 miles from Disney. Full kitchen. Spacious. Amazing pool. Right next to Publix. So close you could hear fireworks. Anyways, our goal is to go and only spend a few hundred dollars. There are ways to get deals on tickets. We did Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween night in Magic Kingdom and it was only $59. Sea World had tickets for only $50 right now. Ok enough. Here our a couple pics!

Our Pool!

Would you believe while we were there a film crew showed up and asked us to be in the hotel filming? I was reluctant at first because we were on vacation, but my parents totally thought it would be hilarious. So, I signed the papers and was up for a good laugh. It was hilarious. I will post the video when they send it to me. I am in the intro, because I totally knew what I was doing, and my kids were filmed going down the waterslides. The cameramen would go down before them and video them the whole way. It was too much. They went around telling everyone they were going to be on tv. We did feel like reality stars because since people saw us with film crews around, they naturally assumed we were "someone". Wasn't there a Saturday Night Live skit about that? People just flock to cameras I guess. 3 years ago, we were asked by HGTV to do a Renovation Reality show while doing Nellie Mae. I blogged about it here.
Anyway, people can do what they want. I was super annoyed after only spending 30 minutes with them. And Mackenzie was acting way too much like a diva after only a few shots on camera. That's not our bag, baby.

Magic Kindom, Halloween style!

3 years in a row, the characters still hold high ranks with what matters with my kiddos. They are just so sweet and genuine with the kids. Its like, they fully embrace that they are a reality and superstar in the eyes of children. It is just fantastic to watch.

Mackenzie was also kind of a big deal this year because she could ride all the roller coasters. I knew she would love them. Mackenzie is a roller coaster. David was also on top of the world because he could drive his own GO KART!! I mean WHAT IS GOING ON DISNEY? Have they totally lost their minds? Yes. Yes they have. Anyway, I don't know if I was in more fear of my own son driving or more in fear that he was driving my father? I just don't know. But. In that moment, sheer terror entered my body and I realized that he just may never drive a vehicle. I then began a list of reasons why he need never drive. We will live in walking distance to where ever he wants to go. Solved that.